


Eventually

by GretchenSinister



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-25 10:00:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17723042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "(Even though they sympathize/empathize with why he did it.)I’d really just love to see a fic where the Guardians want redeemed!Pitch, want him to be on their side, to have people believe in him again, but they can’t exactly let go of the things he did to them all, or to the children.Something exploring that divide? The idea of wanting him as a good guy, but at the same time, being wary of what he’d done in the past.tl;dr Redeemed!Pitch doesn’t automatically end up BFF’s with the guardians, it takes work, and they have problems because of the way he treated them/the children, but they all try. Even when it’s hard.And feels.(Authors are free to include any/all book canon if they like, but since I’m not specifically asking for anything book related, I decided not to add it in the subject bar.)"Pitch is offered a small taste of freedom. Jack shows up and refuses to answer his questions about it (but the offer wasn’t his idea).





	Eventually

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 1/30/2014.

“This was your idea, wasn’t it,” Pitch says to Jack, gesturing towards him with a thing that isn’t a letter, being neither flat, rectangular, made of paper, or written on with ink, but, in all its colorful, glimmering complexity, serves much the same purpose. It grants Pitch the right to all the fear he can produce within a certain geographical area, within a certain small amount of time each night, with no interference from the Guardians, “towards the end of gaining believers without damaging them”.  
  
“Actually, no,” Jack answers, alighting in front of Pitch on the suburban street, glancing up to the stars to check the time. “That’s why I got stuck with coming out here to see how you reacted.”  
  
Pitch frowns. “Well, yes, the language is more like North’s, but surely it was you who suggested such a plan in the first place.”  
  
“Nope.” Jack wonders if he could distract Pitch into missing the beginning of his time of freedom as the letter-thing defines it. He kind of wants to, but…no, better not. He wasn’t there to assume that something was going to go wrong.  
  
“But you…” Pitch looks back at the letter-thing. They all would have had to agree for such a thing to come into being. This seems like a good sign, but Pitch knows better than to trust such things. “But you would have been the only one to understand.”  
  
“You sure about that, Pitch? Not like I was the only one who knew how it felt not to be believed in after that weekend. Anyway, I kind of wanted the whole thing to be conditional on what the meaning of ‘other ways to snuff out a light’ was?”  
  
Pitch looks away.  
  
“Besides,” Jack continues—maybe recklessly, but he wants it to be said—“why are you so sure I’d be the one to understand you? I can,”—he sends a blast of icy air into Pitch’s ear—“get negative attention if I want. But you’ll notice there’s quite a lot of things I never did, even though I had never been seen at all, before,” he finishes calmly as Pitch turns and growls at him.  
  
“So whose idea was it?” Pitch asks.  
  
“I’m not sure if I should tell you,” Jack says.  
  
“I’ll find out eventually.”  
  
“Really? How?”  
  
“Well, I—I’m talking to you, now, and we’ve mostly been civil. I would suppose that I could talk to the others just as easily, especially when at least one of them was inclined to offer me this…opportunity.” He pauses. “The offer is insulting, by the way. I want you to take that message back. Not to—not to say I will refuse it. But it is insulting.”  
  
“Someone was sure you’d say that.” Jack leans casually on his staff. “Not the same person who came up with the idea, though. And no one’s going to tell you who that was.”  
  
“But…eventually…” Pitch scowled at himself. Eventually? What did he think this was going to lead to? Christmas parties at North’s, getting drunk on eggnog; days reminiscing over favorite believers with Tooth; lazy never-won arguments with Bunny over the nature of  _dread_  and  _anticipation_ ; sitting on a cloud of nightmaresand beside Sandy’s while they playfully tried to out-create each other? Of course not. At best, he would no longer feel like he was dying, and his mind would no longer be occupied with the fear that any action he took would be met with retribution. That was more than enough, really. Especially the last. To have that fear lifted was such a relief…well, it was no wonder everyone hated him.  
  
“Going to be a long eventually,” Jack says.  
  
“Yes, I am aware of that,” Pitch snaps.  
  
He was also aware that it would be time soon. Pitch felt all too certain that Jack was going to stay and ruin his first real moments of freedom.  
  
“What would you say if it had been North?” Jack asks.  
  
“I would say that it makes sense because North was least affected. Also, I’ve never known him to be afraid of anything and he likes starting things over each year. I wouldn’t be surprised if every year he hadn’t been prepared to accept my name on the Nice list with perfect equanimity. He doesn’t know me. Of course he’d be the first to offer me a second chance.”  
  
Jack nods, a considering frown on his face. “What if I said it was Tooth?”  
  
“I would say that it makes sense because she already exacted her retribution. And nothing of hers was damaged. Perhaps she would sympathize because she had felt what it was like to lose belief…and to not know what to do. Perhaps she found something in the tooth she took from me, though I have no idea what could be there.”  
  
“And Bunny?”  
  
“I would be more surprised. He’s probably not fully recovered from my attack even now. But…if he had been walked through…well, you know, Jack. It’s awful. If there had been some other way…but no. It’s indescribable. If he had felt that…he’s a Guardian. It wouldn’t be very noble to let anyone experience that ever again. And he’s also in favor of new starts. So I would believe that.”  
  
“What about Sandy?”  
  
“I suppose you expect me to find this the least believable option of all, since I shot him,” Pitch says. “But I would find Sandy the least believable option for many reasons, mostly unrelated to that. Sandy…” Pitch trails off, reluctant to explain anything to Jack. Everything he said would only lead to more questions.  _I could never have killed Sandy. What you saw was…an interpretation. You’ve never seen his true power. No, not even when he returned to you. You never knew him before the Guardians. I bear scars from him just as he bears scars from me._  It comes to him then that all of these things relate to one reason that he can give fairly easily. “However the Sandman thinks, it isn’t in this rules-bound way. If he sympathized with me, he wouldn’t start giving me my domain back in little dribs and drabs. But…as I have diminished, perhaps so has he. Perhaps he has changed.”  
  
“Diminished?” Jack repeats. “What? Well, anyway, you’re never going to figure it out. Now, about this contract—”  
  
Pitch interrupts him by holding the letter thing in front of his face while blackness creeps over every surface. “Consider it signed,” he says. “Now, let me have my time. I’m sure I’ll run into you…eventually.”  
  
To his surprise, Jack doesn’t ruin the moment too much, flying off with a cheeky salute. Maybe not too far off…but he’ll take what he can get. He always does.  
  
And now? Well, no matter what Jack thinks, he might just eventually get what he wants.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments from Tumblr:
> 
> whentheoceanmetsky said: Aw man this was bittersweet in JUST the right way.


End file.
